Nostalgia in the Oven ~ Jumbleberry Crumble

A really good cookbook should assault the senses. Just reading the recipes should be enough to stimulate the taste buds. And then the glorious pictures amount to food porn, calling, tempting, promising indescribable pleasures if you just cook the recipe depicted.

Nigella Lawson is well versed in the art of the Seductive Cookbook...

...and I made the mistake of browsing through one of her tomes this morning over my breakfast cup of tea.

My fate was sealed when I saw the picture on page 182

Jumbleberry Crumble

No matter that I didn't have the over sized teacup for serving, or the cheery table mat, one glance was enough and I knew that you had to be mine. I could already taste the glorious cool of the ice cream, the sweet crunch of the topping and the tart zing of the warm berries.

Fruit crumbles, normally apple, or raspberry were a part of my childhood. Admittedly my mother's were generally overcooked, burnt on top and soggy on the bottom, but even that has a familiarity to it that the picture evoked in me. O.k. so it didn't go with the Enchilada Casserole that was bubbling away in the crock pot, but no matter, I wanted it.

The recipe is simplicity itself.

For the crumble Topping:

2/3 cup of flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes

3 tablespoons brown sugar (light or dark)

Blitz all of the together in a food processor (or rub together by hand) to make a mixture that resembles sand.

You'll also need:

Frozen summer fruits

cornstarch

sugar

vanilla extract

Put the frozen berries in an oven proof container (for one serving I used a 2 cup ramekin)

Put in some frozen berries to just below the top.
Sprinkle 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 2 teaspoons sugar and a drop of vanilla extract on top.
Top with crumble topping.

Put in the oven at 425F for 15-20 mins until cooked.

Serve with a dollop of vanilla ice cream!

The recipe actually makes too much topping, but the beauty is you can store the topping and the berries in the freezer and assemble the entire dessert from frozen quicker than it takes to heat up the oven.

Glorious!